This invention relates to the electrochemical cleaning of electrically conducting filters.
Filtration is a widely used industrial process and the fouling of filters such as membranes used therein may be a considerable problem, especially in microfiltration and ultrafiltration. Thus, such fouling reduces membrane fluxes, and the resulting need for cleaning treatment increases the complexity of filtration equipment, involves loss of time, and decreases membrane lifetime. Conventionally, such cleaning treatment is carried out by chemical dissolution of foulant material or by backwashing. In a typical example, the membranes of microfiltration units for breweries and distilleries have to be cleaned every 2 to 4 hours where the actual cleaning treatment operation takes 1 to 2 hours.